Safeguarding & Prevent

Safeguarding learners is an integral part of Prostart’s policies and procedures in order to provide a safe and welcoming environment in which all individual are respected equally.

Prostart’s aim is:

To ensure that responsibility for a safe environment of the young people/ vulnerable adults at Prostart Training is of high priority.

Ensuring all staff receive instructions and annual training as regards professional behaviour and conduct when dealing with young people.

At no time will a young person be oppressed or exploited.

Respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it; Prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support; and work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to address

Prostart’s Safeguarding & Prevent Policy is reviewed and updated every year. This outlines Prostart’s procedures for ensuring that all our learners are safeguarded and protected and includes contact information for the Local Safeguarding Boards.

All our members of staff have had a Disclosure and Barring Service Checks (DBS previously CRB) check which means that they have been checked against police records.

All our members of staff have had training in Child Protection and Safeguarding and this is updated every year, all staff ensure that fundamental British values are promoted at all times.

You will find information about safeguarding and Prevent in your Induction Handbook which was issued at Induction.

Prostart do not tolerate bullying and discrimination. If you feel you have observed or been subject to such behaviour, you should speak to the members of staff above. If you feel unable to do so, you must speak to another member of staff or the Managing Director.

Harassment must not go un-reported as it will only escalate and may lead to illness and/ or persist and/ or transfer to other victims. It is therefore your duty to report any such behaviour.

Every effort will be made to investigate promptly and thoroughly all allegations, in as confidential a manner as possible.

If you disclose anything where we feel you are in danger or being harmed or you endangering others, we have a responsibility to report it to the relevant authorities

You can also contact:

ChildLine – 0800 1111 calls are free and confidential

Samaritans – 08457 909090

Victim Support – 0845 3030900

Personal Safety & Safeguarding

Here are some tips about keeping safe while you are out and about:

Set your home number on speed dial on your ‘phone

Set up your ‘phone so it can only be unlocked with a pin number

Get your ‘phones, iPods and expensive items marked. Put your house number and postcode on them with an ‘invisible’ security pen

Carry a personal alarm

Avoid dark or lonely short cuts

Stay in groups

Be aware of your surroundings

Think about safe places to walk like well-lit areas and shops

Look out for each other

When you are out and about try to look confident

Trust your instincts – if you feel unsafe get away

Before you go out tell someone where you are going and when you will be back

Keep expensive possessions hidden

Don’t listen to music when you are out and about (or use only one headphone so you can still hear what’s going on behind you)

Learn self defence

Never accepts lifts from strangers or people you don’t know very well

If you have been a victim of crime talking to someone you trust can make you feel better. Here are some examples of people you could talk to:

friends

someone in your family

people at school

people who work with children or young people

the police

If you decide you want to tell the police what happened to you, someone from Victim Support can come to the police station with you. We can also help you to talk to other people, like your teachers or parents, if you want.

Guidance for Young People

Guidance for Parents

Prevent & British Values

Prevent is about safeguarding people and communities from the threat of terrorism. Prevent is 1 of the 4 elements of CONTEST, the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy.

The 4 elements include:

Pursue: to stop terrorist attacks

Prevent: to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism

Protect: to strengthen protection against a terrorist attack, and

Prepare: to mitigate the impact of a terrorist attack

What is the Prevent duty?

The Prevent duty is the duty in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 on specified authorities, in the exercise of their functions, to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.

The Prevent strategy:

Responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views;

Provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support; and

Works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health) where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to deal with.

Prevent covers all forms of terrorism and extremism and some aspects of non-violent extremism.
The Home Office works with local authorities, a wide range of government departments, and community organisations to deliver the Prevent strategy. The police also play a significant role in Prevent, in much the same way as they do when taking a preventative approach to other crimes.

Prevent uses a range of measures to challenge extremism including:

Supporting people who are at risk of being drawn into terrorist or extremist activity through the Channel process.

Working with and supporting community groups and social enterprise projects who provide services and support to vulnerable people

Working with faith groups and institutions to assist them in providing support and guidance to people who may be vulnerable; and

Supporting local schools, local industry and partner agencies through engagement, advice and training.

Prevent is measured locally and nationally to make sure the Prevent programme provides value for money.

The government has defined extremism in the Preventstrategy as: “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British Values.

What are British Values?

British values are defined as “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs”, and institutions are expected to encourage students to respect other people with particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010.

What is Channel?

Channel provides support across the country to those who may be vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. The overall aim of the programme is early intervention and diverting people away from the risk they may face.

Channel uses existing collaboration between partners to support individuals and protect them from being drawn into terrorism. Who delivers channel? The process is a multi-agency approach with a wide range of agencies and local partners working together to provide support for individuals. Coordinators are usually police officers with the multi-agency panel being chaired by the Local Authority.

How does channel work?

Channel works by partners jointly assessing the nature and the extent of the risk and where necessary, providing an appropriate support package tailored to the individual’s needs.The three key stages of Channel are:

Identify individuals at risk of being drawn into terrorism;

Assess the nature and extent of that risk; and

Develop the most appropriate support plan for the individuals concerned.

Glossary

‘Vulnerability’ describes the condition of being capable of being injured; difficult to defend; open to moral or ideological attack. Within Prevent, the word describes factors and characteristics associated with being susceptible to radicalisation.

‘Safeguarding’ is the process of protecting vulnerable people, whether from crime, other forms of abuse or (in the context of this document) from being drawn into terrorist related activity.

‘Radicalisation’ refers to the process by which a person comes to support terrorism and extremist ideologies associated with terrorist groups.

‘Extremism’ is defined in the 2011 Prevent strategy as vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also include in our definition of extremism calls for the death of members of our armed forces, whether in this country or overseas.

The current UK definition of ‘terrorism’ is given in the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT 2000). In summary this defines terrorism as an action that endangers or causes serious violence to a person/people; causes serious damage to property; or seriously interferes or disrupts an electronic system. The use or threat must be designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public and is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.

‘Non-violent extremism’ is extremism, as defined above, which is not accompanied by violence.